April 23: Blessed Maria Gabriella Sagheddu
A life offered for the unity of Christians
At a young age she offered her life to God for the unity of Christians—this was Maria Gabriella Sagheddu. Born in Dorgali (Sardegna, Italy) on March 17, 1914, into a family of modest means, from an early age she showed a strong and determined character, at times even capricious and moody. She began her studies and pursued them successfully, but due to numerous unfortunate family affairs, she was forced to abandon her studies and work in order to support her family.
She did not take part in any parish groups, such as Catholic Action, until the age of 18, when she asked to join the Young Women’s branch of the association. During that period, her family and friends noticed a great spiritual change in her. From having a difficult temperament, she became very devoted to the Rosary and more interested in spiritual matters. Gradually, she began to understand a special calling from God. She intensified her prayer life and became a catechist. On October 6, 1935, she decided to consecrate herself entirely to God and, following the advice of her spiritual director, the assistant parish priest Don Basilio Meloni, she entered the Trappist monastery of Grottaferrata (Rome).
She took the name Maria Gabriella, in memory of the mystery of the Annunciation, which she often meditated upon, and on April 13 of the following year she received the habit.
In 1936, following the guidance of the priest from Lyon, Paul Couturier—an important promoter of ecumenism and of the Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity—the abbess of the Grottaferrata monastery, Mother Pia Gullini, had accepted the invitation to pray for this intention. At the beginning of the Octave for the Unity of Christians in 1938, when Mother Gullini asked the community for prayers and offerings, Maria Gabriella felt that she was called to offer her life for the unity of Christians. Faced with the abbess’s hesitation, Maria Gabriella replied: “I feel that the Lord is asking this of me,” she said to the abbess, “I feel compelled, even when I do not want to think about it.” And yet, she had never studied ecumenism nor had she had any experience in that field. After speaking with the monastery chaplain, she made the offering of her life to God for the unity of Christians.
That same evening, she understood that God had accepted her offering when she felt a sharp pain in her back. It was the beginning of tuberculosis. Thus began her Calvary of suffering. Once she said to the nurse: “My illness is my treasure; I cannot give it to anyone.” After fifteen months of suffering, she reached the end of her life on April 23, 1939. Her body was buried in the Chapel of Unity of the monastery of Vitorchiano (Viterbo), where the nuns had moved in 1957.
Sister Maria Gabriella was beatified on January 25, 1983, by Pope John Paul II.